Top 70 Sarah Lancashire Quotes

Actors are bloody marvelous at hiding.

I think women have not been terribly kind to other women for a very long time.

Most of the career choices I’ve made have been because of my family.

I am a tea connoisseur and my idea of absolute heaven is a tea shop.

I love swing, jazz, blues, standards. I love the American songbook, Gershwin, Berlin. It’s all that. So I’m born in the wrong era and I just don’t fit into the 21st century at all.

I need to grow as an actor. The wonderful thing is you never stop learning, and as my only interest is trying to perfect what I do, it’s wonderful because I’ll never succeed, so I’ll have to keep working.

I never get offered comedy.

It’s a joy doing ‘Tango.’ I’d do it till the day I die, frankly.

I have to work at my own speed.

My family on my mother’s side is Irish.

Am I attracted to people who want to give other people a voice? Yes I am, and that may be a ‘common denominator with the characters that I play.

It’s down to the actors to show the writers the potential of the character.

Children are part of the natural pattern of life. For centuries people have been having children and going to work. You get on with it, that’s what life’s about.

You have to have brilliant people to work opposite, and then it does become like a real tennis match and this is our sport. With somebody like Mark Lewis Jones, who is extraordinary anyway, you just know it’s going to be a good match.

For me, it was much more important to continue to learn my craft as an actor and get a bit of flesh on the bones.

I’ve learnt that it’s possible to be as anonymous as you want. It’s a choice, and I’ve become very, very good at being anonymous.

It started at 49 with ‘Tango in Halifax’ and then ‘Happy Valley.’ I can’t complain at a time when most actors are disappearing. I seem to have become very visible.

There’s some truth that roles for older women are harder to come by, but it’s wrong for actors to monopolise the ageist thing.

Acting is a subtle combination of hiding and revealing yourself, and as I’m not an extrovert, this is painful for me.

It was easier to act, in a way, than to be myself. Somehow I just felt I was in the right place.

I’m not planning on being a health role model.

Age affects us all in the workplace. We all get a little less appealing as we get older, unfortunately.

When you receive a script and it leaps out at you and it’s breathing with its own heartbeat – I suppose when you read something like that it’s not a choice of whether you do it or don’t. It feels like it chooses you, so you just do it.

It’s too easy to underestimate your audience. But it’s not rocket science: bad plays don’t get people on seats; good plays do.

‘Kiri’ reflects the society we’re living in now, where everything has to be transparent and people are under so much pressure. The scrutiny is extraordinary and you really get a sense of panic emerging.

I own a copy of the original ‘Talking Heads’ by Alan Bennett, which I purchased many years ago shortly after they were first broadcast. It’s been lovingly well-thumbed over the years. They are magnificent. A masterpiece.

I only did five or six weeks in ‘Guys and Dolls,’ and when I was 26 or so, I was in ‘Blood Brothers’ for a year on the West End, playing Linda, with Kiki Dee.

I don’t like comparing projects. I find it too difficult because I can’t objectively look at a piece when I’m so subjectively involved it.

I think Jack Thorne is an exceptional writer.

‘MotherFatherSon’ was just an extraordinary read and I wanted to be a part of it.

I’m not terribly good at being around work I don’t care about!

It’s not something I’m embarrassed about. Depression is an issue that tends to be brushed under the carpet. My hope is that if people with a public profile are prepared to talk about it, then it might prompt other people to talk about it too.

Marriage is not for everyone, but spiritually it is very necessary for me because I have a desire, a need to feel owned.

I am a stickler for damn good writing.

Love is very complicated and it’s never black and white, as I’m sure we all know in our lives.

An ‘Ordinary Woman’ is the beautiful and achingly poignant portrait of Gwen, a complex and troubled woman in her middle years.

I come from a line of women who can bake, so I think I’ve inherited a bit of family knowledge.

I don’t like talking about me. I only speak when I have something to say and won’t share my personality.

You start out with scripts pre-written, with no specific actor in mind, so you’ve got to build a character on top of that foundation. It’s not just lifting words off the page, it’s constructing a history around them as well.

Working on ‘The Paradise’ is like putting on a comfy overcoat.

It’s wonderful when you happen across it as an actor, finding a young actor that is literally just starting out and you understand that to them the craft is the most important aspect of the job.

Watching your own work doesn’t get any easier.

I took 18 months away to have my son, Joseph, and it was the biggest break I’d ever had in my working life of nearly 20 years.

I think going to university, getting married, having children, and then having the choice to stay at home to raise those children is a very valid one for women and they shouldn’t be castigated for it. It’s a great job. Not many men would do it.

I would never condone anything which I thought was salacious, titillating, or gratuitous.

I don’t feel that 40 is anything these days. Our life expectancy is so much greater that maybe 50 is the new 40.

Being in the public eye makes you frightened to talk openly about things – which is precisely why you should. You can really make a difference and open up subjects that are taboo.

My father was a TV scriptwriter. He would perform his dialogue out loud, while my mum transcribed it at the typewriter. So I grew up thinking that plucking characters out of the air was an extremely normal way to behave.

Anyone who has to be accountable in a time when resources are shrinking, where transparency is necessary, where the pressures are greater, is going to find that it takes a toll.

Two of the best roles I’ve ever had have happened in my late 40s.

I’d like to think little miracles do happen in ‘Angel Cake.’

Relationships are very complex. It’s very unusual to see something which is so ‘complex portrayed on screen.

To be asked to perform a new ‘Talking Head’ was beyond any expectation. The matchless brilliance of Alan Bennett’s words coupled with the extraordinary wisdom of Nick Hytner’s direction made this a thrilling and quite simply unforgettable experience, and I’m enormously grateful.

I am possibly the biggest ‘Downton’ fan you can ever meet.

I’m not very good at watching myself. I look at it and I think, ‘Oh, they’ve used the wrong take.’ My job is over and it’s not healthy to sit there and scrutinize your work as you’re invariably unhappy!

I do find it quite difficult to complete a job and return to normality – it does take a bit of time to find my healthy place.

‘Tango’ is very much an ensemble piece and I was devastated when I read the script.

I think all writers have a style, a particular voice and rhythm that you have to find.

I can bake but I don’t do a lot of baking, mainly because the side effect is not very good for you.

Sometimes it’s necessary for soaps to hang on to an audience by sensationalizing, but it’s a beast I don’t understand any more, an art form that has fostered extraordinary talent. It’s a great arena to learn your craft before you move on.

I can tell very early on, reading a script, within six or seven pages, whether I’m looking at real people, and whether I can see and hear real people.

I’m absolutely certain that audiences want to see older women on their TVs.

I got married only because I was pregnant. Simple as that. I am a very traditional girl and was horrified at the thought of having a child out of wedlock. I didn’t want a child of mine to be different or have fingers pointed at.

The work I like to do is the work I’m most afraid of.

But I am Northern myself, and there is a certain rhythm of Northern speech that is very comical: that combination of the choice of language and the speech rhythm, which in itself is very funny.

I think this country is terribly, horribly obsessed with age, and it really is just this country. If you’re still living and breathing at 50, then count your blessings!

I truly believe that love is love and gender is immaterial.

I have never known what it feels like to wake up in the morning full of the joys of spring, and wander through the day feeling capable of coping.

My father’s family, I think, were mostly from Lancashire, but I don’t know how far back we go. I think it’s quite a few generations.

Being an actor can be a cruel experience because there is no cooling-down period. You can be involved in something that’s incredibly intense, but then it’s a wrap and you’ve finished and you go home. I find it difficult to complete a job and then return to reality and find my healthy place.